


Infinite Magic

by Iron_Eirlyssa (Eirlyssa)



Series: Eirlyssa's 2018 Bingo Fills [5]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hogwarts, Alternate Universe - Magic, F/F, F/M, Gen, Howard Stark's A+ Parenting, Infinity Gems, M/M, Pretty much everyone is in this, Runes, Tony Feels, Tony Stark Has A Heart, other characters to be added later
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-06
Updated: 2018-10-06
Packaged: 2019-07-27 06:39:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,173
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16213529
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eirlyssa/pseuds/Iron_Eirlyssa
Summary: It’s not always easy, being a child genius. Especially in a magical school. Especially if most people just don’t like you. Not that that’s going to stop Tony from doing the right thing and trying to help out the best that he can, of course.And then there’s a break-in and the Infinity Stones get involved, and things get a whole lot more complicated. In the end, though, they might turn out better than Tony would’ve dared to hope.





	Infinite Magic

**Author's Note:**

> They are in Hogwarts (despite it being in Britain and most of them being decidedly not-British) because I feel like I don't know enough about Ilvermorny to do it justice, whereas Hogwarts is far more well-known.
> 
> My fill (so far, but I have so much more to write) for my Tony Stark Bingo R4 square: Magic.
> 
> I hope you enjoy this!

Considering the Hospital Wing wasn’t the place Tony usually woke up, he had a difficult time recognizing his surroundings at first. Considering he was a genius, it didn’t take him long, though.

Slowly, memories returned of what had happened. The castle had been under attack. The Dark Lord Thanos had finally ended up attacking outright. Every staff member had gone outside to head him off, depending on the castle’s defenses, and Tony was sure they must have held. He might be young, after all, but the work he did _worked_ , and he’d personally helped with strengthening the defenses.

So why was he in the Hospital Wing?

Looking around, he noticed Bruce on the bed next to him, a woman he presumed to be his mother sitting next to him and looking exhausted. A bit further away was Rogers, presumably also with his mother, and the sight of him was what reminded Tony of what had happened. Running through hallways, evading panicking students, because… Professor Pierce had told Rogers to defend the secret weapon rumoured to have been hidden inside the school? It hadn’t made a lot of sense when Bruce, panting, had explained it to him, and now that he had more time to think on it, it made even less sense.

Fortunately, for all that Rogers was impulsive and righteous, Merlin had granted his best friend Barnes enough common sense for the both of them and he had made sure they weren’t the only ones there.

Which had turned out to be fortunate, because apparently there was a breach in the school’s defense, and Thanos’ elite Black Order had managed to make their way in. Tony made a mental note to check how that had been possible (even though the back of his mind told him it was impossible - unless one of the staff had let them in on purpose. He was too good at what he did for anyone to have been able to bypass his defenses).

They’d all fought, and the only reason the Black Order hadn’t wiped the floor with all of them was the fact that there were many of them and only four of the Order.

Amazingly enough, they hadn’t been defeated. Tony knew that for sure. But then what _had_ happened? They had been fighting, having grouped up to face the Order, and suddenly, there had been _**light**_ , so bright even thinking of it made Tony’s head throb.

Oh. Right.

Something had gone wrong with the secret weapon hovering in the middle of the room above a pedestal, like the stupidest target practice ever made. Tony knew it hadn’t been his group, considering they’d been managing to keep the member known only as Ebony away from it. He didn’t even know if it had been an accident for one of the others or if one of the Order had managed to get to it after all. But it had resulted in the _**light**_ , and then there had been nothing.

Carefully looking at all of the others (and yes, everyone was here, and most of them didn’t look to be awake yet - Strange was talking softly to what were presumably his parents, Romanoff and what looked to be her father were both silent, and Foster’s mother seemed to be unable to stop hugging her as her father sat and held her hand tightly) no one seemed outwardly hurt more than usual. Considering the enemies they had faced, it was almost a miracle. Miracles made Tony suspicious.

He didn’t have long to think about it though, as the doors soon opened to admit Healers Cho and Erskine. Most of the parents in the room instantly looked ready to ask questions, but Healer Cho held up a hand as Healer Erskine moved on to the one reason he’d been hired and his mother.

“Please, Headmaster Fury will be here soon to talk to all of you,” Healer Cho assured the parents. “I’m here primarily to do another checkup of everyone, though nothing indicates anything would be wrong with any of your children, so please don’t worry too much. They should wake up any moment now.”

As she went through the room, Tony took the time to look around a bit more. He spotted Rhodey, his parents sitting by the side of his bed, and was relieved to see his friend didn’t look terribly hurt. Almost as though she could feel his gaze, Roberta looked up at him and smiled. With a brief whisper to her husband, she stood up and headed over to Tony. “I’m glad to see you’re up, dear,” she whispered as she hugged him, and for a moment he let himself enjoy the feeling of someone caring about him.

“Is Rhodey alright?” he asked, worried about his best friend.

Roberta smiled at him. “Healer Cho says everything looks just fine, as though he’s merely asleep. The same as with everyone else. In the end, it was decided it was probably safest to let everyone wake up by themselves, so it’s mostly just waiting.”

She kept sitting with him for a while, whispering softly back and forth as Wilson and both Thor and Loki Njordson woke up, but he encouraged her to go back to Rhodey to make sure that she would be there when he woke up. Just in time, too, considering he was the next one to open his eyes.

One by one, the others also opened their eyes, looking around them in askance before having their parents explain at least some of what had happened. Tony wondered how much the parents actually knew. Knowing Headmaster Fury, it wouldn’t be the entire story.

By the time the door to the Hospital Wing opened, most of them were actually awake and talking to their parents. It wasn’t their Headmaster entering, however.

Tony looked on as Howard strode quickly towards Rogers’ bed, where his mother and Healer Erskine were keeping watch. Rogers grinned at his approach, and Tony made very sure to keep his face emotionless and his Occlumency walls up.

“Steve, are you alright?” The worry was more than clear in Howard’s voice as well as his expression, and Rogers just about outshone the sun.

“I feel great, actually! Healer Erskine hasn’t been able to find anything yet, but it really looks like I’m better than ever!” At least being suspicious was a good distraction. As long as Tony had known, Rogers had suffered from several illnesses, nearly dying at least twice before even heading off to Hogwarts. Howard himself had made sure that Healer Erskine would be there to take care of him, paying what were probably insane amounts of money. To hear him say he was feeling great made Tony wonder once more exactly what that _**light**_ had done.

Still, Howard frowned - not disapproving, Tony could see, but concerned. “Headmaster Fury told me you’d gone to try to stop the Black Order on your own, Steve. Do you have any idea how worried I was when I heard you’d been taken to the Hospital Wing, unconscious?”

“I couldn’t just do nothing, though!” Rogers argued, and Tony looked down at his blanket when he saw how proud Howard looked.

He could still hear them, though. Howard sighed. “I know, kid. You never have been able to let any kind of injustice go.” There was a brief moment of silence. “Your father would’ve been so proud of you, Steve. I know I am.”

“Thank you,” came Rogers’ reply, sounding all choked up. And as much as Tony wanted to hate him, maybe even did a bit, he couldn’t blame him.

“I’ll be back soon, kid.” It had taken a while. Howard was usually far too aware of his public image to ignore Tony in favour of someone else. He must’ve been really worried about Steve to completely bypass that, which somehow stung even more. Every moment like this, where it became so very clear that it wasn’t that Howard was incapable of caring, made Tony wonder all the more what was so wrong with him that the man couldn’t care about his own son.

It took effort to keep his face expressionless as Howard walked over to him, not wanting to let anyone else see how much he did not want to talk to his father. Of course, Howard was equally blank.

A few waves of his wand later, the curtains were drawn and a silencing bubble erected around them, so no one would be able to hear what they were talking about. Tony tried not to show any emotion, but he knew his eyes were wary at the sneer on Howard’s face.

“And what in Merlin’s name did you think you were doing?”

Honestly? Tony wasn’t even sure what the problem was this time. The fact that his father might unironically kill him if anything happened to Rogers had crossed his mind when he’d decided to join the others in facing the Black Order, but he’d done what he could, right? Not that that was ever enough for Howard.

No answer might be worse than the wrong answer, though. He was never sure with Howard, and it tended to depend on the day and whatever inscrutable mood his father was in at the moment.

“Trying to help out?” Silently, he cursed himself for sounding so unsure. Had he learned nothing by now?

He flinched as Howard raised his wand, even before he spoke. “ _Noceto_.” Clenching his teeth, Tony did whatever he could not to scream or cry. Either of those would make it so much worse. Stark men were made of iron, after all, and never showed weakness.

When the pain stopped, he looked back up at Howard, face as expressionless as it had ever been. No weaknesses.

“Nick told me you’d helped out on defenses for the school. Defenses that _failed_.” Ah. That was the excuse today. “People could have gotten hurt, _killed even_. The work done by a Stark _does not fail_ , Anthony!” The pain hit him again. He knew the force of it depended on the anger of the one casting the spell, and it was all he could do to remain quiet until it ended. Stark men were made of iron.

“I need to inspect it before I can be sure what went wrong,” he tried when he could speak again. The most likely explanation was that his work _hadn’t_ failed, but he would need to inspect the runes again to be sure. Not to mention that arguing with his father that it wasn’t his mistake would not end well for him.

Howard sneered, anger still in his eyes. “Pathetic.” The one word said so much more - how much of a disappointment he was, how much Howard wished Tony wouldn’t have been his son. Tony swallowed and tried not to cry.

Once Howard decided he looked composed enough, he brought down the silencing bubble and opened up the curtains again, no doubt impatient to get back to Rogers. It drew the attention of some of the others, and Tony didn’t know what his face actually showed, but he could see Romanoff sneer as Barton rolled his eyes. Rogers just looked at him disapprovingly before smiling at Howard again.

Even Rhodey appeared to be frowning, though Tony couldn’t tell if it was concern or disapproval and, if the latter, to whom it was directed. He wasn’t even sure he wanted to know.

Doing his best to ignore everything around him, Tony busied himself considering the runes he’d placed to try and see if he could figure out where things went wrong as they all waited for Headmaster Fury to show up. The easiest explanation was still that his protections hadn’t failed, but that also included accusing one of the teachers of allowing in the _Black Order_ , of all enemies, and there was nothing easy about that. He needed to look at the runes themselves, with fresh eyes, to see if there was any other explanation.

By the time the doors to the Hospital Wing opened again to admit a frowning Headmaster, Tony had run through all of the runes at least twice, trying to figure out a way past them. He hadn’t succeeded yet.

❇ _magic_ ❇

A week later, he was even more sure that he had made no mistakes. He’d looked at his work from all sides, theorized different ways do influence the defenses, and had run a few tests. The conclusions remained the same, however.

He suspected Fury actually knew as much, which was confirmed during the meeting in the Headmaster’s office. "I checked to be sure, but there is no hole in the defenses I put up." Tony tilted his chin up, ready to argue with Fury if he had to, but the man only sighed.

"I was afraid of that," the Headmaster confessed.

A frown appeared on Tony's face. Something in the tone of his voice was off. "You knew that would be the case," he guessed. If he wasn't sure before, the consternation on Fury's face would have given it away. "Then why make me go over it all again?"

"Because while you were investigating, I could look around for myself. I needed some things secured, before accusing anyone."

They looked at one another in silence for a little, but Fury clearly wasn't going to tell Tony and he wasn't going to outright ask which of the teachers had allowed an elite group of murderers into a school full of children. He had his suspicions, regardless.

"Was there anything you needed?" There was plenty of things Tony would rather do than end up in a staring contest with his Headmaster. With everything that had happened, he had hardly spent any time in the room that had been set aside as his 'workshop'. He had a lot of projects in there, some of which had needed to be set aside temporarily but which he really wanted to get back to.

Unfortunately, it looked like he wouldn't be able to, yet. "If possible, yes." It was odd to hear Fury sound uncertain. If anything, at least what he wanted would probably be a challenge. That might be worth not being able to finish his latest projects.

"How much have you heard about what has been going on with the others you fought the Black Order with?"

Not a lot, honestly. Tony had spent most of his time either looking at his runes or trying to figure out ways past them in either the Library or in his workshop. Fortunately, Rhodey and Pepper had taken up the task of making sure he remained fed, which was also how he had heard the only piece of news related to the rest of them.

"Rhodey - James Rhodes, he mentioned strange things happening with some of them? And Pepper - I mean, Virginia Potts said all of them were taken aside to be looked at. I was a bit busy with other things most of the time, though."

The Headmaster nodded, but was silent for a bit. Tony wondered if he was thinking about what to tell Tony, or if he was just contemplating where to start. If he wanted an effective solution, it was best to be as open as possible, which had been a point of contention between the two of them back when Tony had helped out with the school's defenses (and which Tony had won, though the awesome defenses made him think Fury won just as much in the end).

"What do you know about the Infinity Stones?" was Fury's astonishing first sentence.

Tony blinked. "The Infinity Stones. As in, the 'start of the universe', long lost Infinity Stones?"

A wry smile was his response. "Exactly those. Except they weren't as lost as assumed." The brief silence that followed allowed Tony to deal with his surprise. He had heard of them, of course - while Howard hadn't allowed much frivolous reading at all, the myths of the magical world had been relevant enough that he had been allowed to read them. "They have been protected by several people over the ages, and most thought them only a myth. But not Thanos. We're still unsure if he found out somehow, whether someone had talked when they shouldn't have, or if it was just a lucky guess. But one way or another, he found out and he started looking for them. He killed to try to find them, and he almost succeeded multiple times. And it was decided that Hogwarts might be the only safe place to keep them."

"A school. Filled with children." Certainly, Hogwarts was one of the most well-defended places in the magical world, even more so since Tony's own work, but he couldn't say he was very impressed with their reasoning. "And you decided it was the best place to keep something you knew was being hunted by someone with no compunction about murdering people to get what he wants."

"It was the only option we had left. Trust me, I have heard all of the things you are thinking right now, most of them from the parents of those that faced the Black Order with you." Tony wasn't sure he had, and he was even less sure he much trusted Fury, but it was done now anyway. "The reason we had to tell them was that it appears that the protections somehow broke during the fight, which left the Infinity Stones exposed. No one can tell us exactly what happened - " and yes, Tony knew that. They had all talked about it in the Hospital Wing, but no one knew more than that there was suddenly a _**light**_ , and then they were in the Hospital Wing " - and by the time we got there, the Black Order was gone and all of you were unconscious."

"And the Stones?"

"Gone."

Tony frowned. "Gone? As in, the Black Order took them?" But then, why would they have to tell all their parents?

"We thought that first, as well. All we have is unconscious children, no Infinity Stones, and none of the Black Order some of the portraits saw inside the castle. But that's where things start getting odd. Because not even the portraits equipped to see through invisibility spells and even cloaks ever saw the Black Order leave. Then we got reports that they were found outside the castle, as unconscious as all of you were. As you know, the area outside the castle is surveilled by the Centaurs. And they told us that when Thanos woke them up to ask them if they had gotten the Stones, they told him they hadn't."

"So the Black Order didn't have the Infinity Stones, but they weren't in the room where you found us anymore, either?"

"Exactly," Fury nodded. "You might be able to imagine our worries. We tried to find them again, first looking for their unique signatures, then looking for the cloaking protection that had been around it for ages. Neither method got us any results. We were close to panicking. And then we started noticing things."

"Things you need my help with," Tony surmised.

"We had noticed Mr. Rogers was feeling better than usual, which Healer Erskine came to see me about, as well. Then both Ms. Foster's friend Ms. Lewis and Professor Selvig came to see me. Professor Heimdall came to see me about the younger Mr. Njordson. By the time Professor Ársa brought Ms. Palmer to see me about Mr. Strange, there were noticeable differences to Mr. Rogers. He and Mr. Barton were, in the end, the ones who brought the Maximoff siblings to see me."

This was going somewhere very uncomfortable. "What are you saying, Headmaster?"

"I'm saying that it looks like five of the Stones were absorbed by some of our students." Oh, Merlin. "So far, what we've been able to tell is that Mr. Rogers absorbed most of the Power Stone, with some effects on Mr. Barnes. Ms. Maximoff got more of the effects of the Mind Stone than her brother, but he did get more than any other so-called secondary recipient. Ms. Foster faces the effects of the Reality Stone on her own and is having the most difficult time with it. Mr. Njordson, the younger, has absorbed the Space Stone with minimal effects on both Mr. Maximoff and Mr. Barton showing. Finally, Mr. Strange was the sole recipient of the Time Stone. Most of them are having some difficulties with the effects."

“They… absorbed the Infinity Stones?” It sounded insane. As far as most people knew, they were no more than a myth.

But apparently, it was exactly that insane. “They did.”

“And what is it you want _me_ to do, exactly?”

“So far, the side-effects have been… bothersome, but it has still been possible to deal with them. Mr. Njordson has been teleporting places, both within the school and out. Mr. Strange has accidentally paused or briefly reversed time on a few occasions. Mr. Rogers is slowly growing stronger, but the process is slowed by the fact that the Power Stone is healing him first. More concerningly, Ms. Maximoff has accidentally read the minds of multiple students and even a few of the Professors not experienced with Occlumency. Ms. Foster mostly has things under control when she is awake, but she has had a few nightmares that the Reality Stone has attempted to make happen for real. What I need you to do is make sure the effects of the Stones are minimized as much as possible.”

Tony blinked. “You want me to find a way to control the _Infinity Stones_.”

“Aside from your efforts in protecting the school, we have also noticed the… necklace, for lack of a better word, that you made for Mr. Banner.” That was fair. The rope of leather around Bruce’s neck had been imbued with runes that kept his werewolf form relatively sane. Considering the Hulk was larger than any other werewolf due to how Bruce had been infected, even the Wolfsbane Potion hadn’t been enough to keep it under control. Tony was still proud he’d been able to help. “Regular spells have no way of containing the effects, and most of the more disastrous occasions are not conscious decisions on their side.”

Sitting back, Tony considered the situation. He pulled out his notebook and began scribbling, occasionally asking a clarifying question, trying to figure out how anything was supposed to contain the power of the Infinity Stones. After some calculating, estimating the effects certain runes would have on others, he looked back up at the Headmaster. “I won’t be able to affect more than the subconscious effects. If any of them decides to actually _use_ the Stones, I don’t think there’s anything that would be able to stop that.”

“But you would be able to do that?”

“I can try,” Tony answered honestly. “If nothing else, it’ll be a challenge.”

The Headmaster’s lips twitched - the closest Tony had ever seen him to a smile. “That, if nothing else.” Especially Rogers’, considering they did want to keep the subconscious healing, but they didn’t want accidental power blasts. All of them were up for quite a bit of training their new ‘powers’ even if Tony did manage to create inhibitors of sorts, since all of the Stones could have different effects on consciously cast spells as well. Considering that…

“In the meantime, you better have the lot of them practicing on powering up runes.”

Fury looked at him questioningly. “You want them to power up the runes?”

“At least some of them. That way, the power of the Stones kind of keeps itself in check, instead of depending on my magical strength.” Tony was not at all weak for his age, as demonstrated by the fact that he managed to keep up in sixth-year classes despite the fact that he should only be in his third year, but he was not a match for the power of the Infinity Stones and he knew it. “And right now, the lot of them might overpower the runes and set the entire thing on fire.” Unexpected power spikes tended to have that effect.

He quickly scribbled some runes on a blank page of his notebook and ripped it out, handing it to the Headmaster. “Professor Yinsen should be able to transcribe these onto some pieces of leather, and I think Strange and Njordson - Loki - should be able to as well if they go through them too quickly. All it should result in is them lighting up, which is a good test to see if they work or not. And make sure they do it somewhere that doesn’t burn easily.” He foresaw quite a few explosions.

“I’ll make sure all of them are monitored carefully as they practice,” Fury nodded. “Thank you for your efforts, Mr. Stark.”

And sadly, the appreciation was one of the nicest things anyone could’ve given him in return. Tony smiled. He might not be a great person, but at least he could help out others in some way.

**Author's Note:**

> It's not finished yet, and I'm not sure I'll be updating it for a while while working on other things, but I do promise I will come back to it! If you have any questions in the meantime, feel free to leave a comment here or on my [new Tumblr page](https://eirlyssa.tumblr.com/). Thank you for reading!


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